Open Data

Open data is about making data freely available for use by others without copyright or trademark limitations. Governments are inviting businesses and citizens to use government data in innovative ways to drive improvements in society.

Governments at all levels are working to overcome the challenges of opening their data sources to drive innovation and share information. The PHEMI Central Big Data Warehouse lets them do this with much greater ease, with:

Seamless aggregation of massive volumes and varieties of public sector data sets currently stranded across hundreds of data silos

Fine-grained privacy, security, and governance features, ensuring the right access to the right people at the right time, while still protecting privacy rights

Simplified management of many users, many roles, and many datasets

Rapid definition and rollout of new applications, on demand

The potential use of open data is enormous, with applications ranging from small and consumer-oriented in scope to broad and policy-affecting. Here are just a few examples of businesses, governments and constituents using open data to help people make informed decisions:

Within three hours of the 7.0 magnitude Earthquake in Haiti, the OpenStreetMap Community began tracing roads using images, map sources, and government data to help responding organizations establish relief and rescue centers.